JHS falls in first round of playoffs

Jacksonville’s second-year volleyball coach was almost at a loss for words following the Cardinals’ 3-0 loss to Union Pines on Saturday in the first round of the NCHSAA 3-A playoffs.

A season that saw Jacksonville (16-5) share the Coastal Conference title and enter the playoffs as the league’s second seed ended in a match that was separated by just six points.

Union Pines won 28-26, 26-24, 25-23.

“Honestly, I told them (the players) that I wasn’t prepared to give a tough loss speech,” Rakes said. “I really honestly expected us to win.”

Rather, it was the Vikings (17-7) who emerged victorious. Union Pines, the third seed from the Cape Fear Valley Conference, will visit Wilson Fike (19-4) on Tuesday in the second round. Fike defeated West Brunswick 3-0 on Saturday.

“First of all, I want to give credit to Jacksonville. They got a great team, they play hard and they scrap,” Union Pines coach Valerie Maness said. “That’s just volleyball and that’s the way it works. It’s a game of momentum, and if you can grab the momentum and keep it, to me that’s the key because I thought we were equally matched.”

Both teams shared momentum spurts. The Vikings took a 5-1 lead in the third set, but Jacksonville rallied with an 8-0 run to take a 9-5 lead.

Later, Union Pines had a 5-0 spurt to grab a 16-13 lead, but Jacksonville came back to go up 21-18. The set was then tied 22-22 before the Vikings scored the next two points to make it 24-22. The two teams then traded service errors, with Jacksonville’s serving mistake ending the match.

The second set was tied 24-24 when a service error put the visitors up one before a sideout gave the Vikings the 26th point.

“We came out strong. We came out the way we needed to, but then we gave them like a six- or seven-point rally and it killed us. It killed our momentum and it killed our spirits,” Rakes said. “At the start of set two, you could almost see it in their faces and they kind of went into this ‘Let’s play safe mode.’”

In the first set, the Cardinals used a 9-0 run to take a 13-5 lead. That run featured a pair of aces from Cassie Padilla, who ended with 10 kills and four aces.

Junior Kennan Marks added 22 assists for JHS.

However, Union Pines managed to tie it at 23-23 following a 5-0 spurt. After taking a 24-23 lead, Jacksonville had four set points, but came up empty. With the Vikings up 27-26, Union Pines sophomore Alex Prots had a kill to win the set.

“She’s worked a lot of hitting sets that are off,” Maness said. “Usually she is a tight-set hitter, but she has been working on the ones that are off so she doesn’t get blocked as easily.”

So what was the overall difference?

Rakes said the Cardinals had 12 hitting errors and 10 service errors. She said JHS had eight hitting errors and four service errors in the first set, six and five in the second and four and one in the third.

“That’s the game right there,” Rakes said. “It’s the way it goes when you make the errors.”

Union Pines was led by Prots, who stands at 5-foot-6.

“They definitely took advantage of our free balls,” Rakes said. “We sent over too many free balls and they kind of ran a tandem where both of their middles would go, and No. 3 (Prots) had some nice shots against us.”

The Vikings also had the edge at the net as they have six players at least 5-foot-9, including four 5-10 or taller.

“We just try to let our defense evolve around our height and we channel our height to get blocks to help our defense, especially against teams who have hard hitters,” Maness said. “We try to tell them to get their hands on it.”

And in the end, the Vikings were just a little too much for the Cardinals.

But despite the loss, Rakes is pleased with the season and how much the Cardinals progressed.

“It was a fun ride and the girls definitely molded together,” she said. “Going back to the start of the season, we lost 86 percent of our points. Some girls had to step up and fill some big shoes and I think they did a great job. We did more than what we thought we would this season.”